Thursday Bolts – 5.31.12

Bill Simmons with an always entertaining retro-diary: “Durant (27 points) makes two freebies, Duncan makes one of two (Spurs by 14), then Westbrook air-balls a horrific 3 with 20 seconds left on the shot clock. For the record: I like Westbrook. He’s young, he’s a good teammate, he’s fun to watch, he gives a crap, and he’s absolutely breathtaking in person. He also gets dissected on the Internet like no NBA star other than LeBron, something that undeniably affected him last summer and led Presti to tell me a few weeks ago that he’s never seen an athlete face more scrutiny at a younger age than Westbrook faced during last year’s playoffs. That’s just the nature of the beast now — basketball has become a 24/7/365 sport, and once we’re down to one playoff game a night, every flaw and every bad decision gets exacerbated. A lot of times, unfairly.”

Zach Lowe of SI.com: “But the Thunder have to try something. Perhaps they should experiment with Sefolosha on Parker, and/or with going under the initial screens, rather than chasing Parker over them. Maybe they should trap Parker more aggressively, hoping that they can recover properly before Parker finds an open Duncan. I don’t know the answer, but I know the status quo isn’t working. The Thunder need a solution — and they’re running out of time.”

Berry Tramel: “Nothing is assured, not even for these Spurs and most definitely not for the Thunder. But the horizon looks promising in Oklahoma City. Pay your dues, display some patience and these baby Boomers should one day grow up to be like the Spurs.”

Jesse Blanchard of 48 Minutes of Hell on Hack-a-Splitter: “Taking advantage of an opponent’s weakness, within the context of the current rules, is not bad form. It’s brilliant strategy. And the answer to the perceived dilemma is not to take smarter coaches chess boards away and forcing them to play checkers with the rest of the NBA, but to call for better players and better coaching to close this loophole.”

Beckley Mason of TrueHoop on OKC’s pace: “To hearken back to economics, the Thunder are in an odd position of not really having big marginal advantages over anyone in any one area, despite a lot of strengths when averaged across buckets. Their only real weakness is that they simply can’t play slow-down, knock out ball the way a team like Miami can — indeed, the Thunder actually were better than the Spurs at super-slow games, and far better than the Celtics. But against the Heat, that relative strength becomes a massive boondoggle. The, conversely, the Thunder are well above average at a faster-paced game… but still significantly worse than either the Heat or the Spurs! The only decisive advantage the Thunder really have in terms of pace is to play a very normal, league-average 91-95 possessions. My theory is that the Thunder defense gradually breaks down as the game gets faster, but the offense (isolation based and transition-heavy as it already is) doesn’t have a second gear that allows it to become more efficient in a fast-paced setting.”

Hanson is singing the national anthem tonight. Prepare yourselves.

Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: “Brooks could make some adjustments heading into tonight’s game. One consideration might be to check Parker with Thabo Sefolosha, a bigger guard who could better defend the Spurs’ offensive catalyst because of his 6-foot-7 frame. The Thunder have been most successful during the series’ first two games when they went small, moving Kevin Durant to power forward. They’ve gotten into trouble trying to check the Spurs’ perimeter game with Perkins and Serge Ibaka in the lineup at the same time.”

Go Thunder!! Beat the Spurs! I am from Dallas but we (my family) are cheering for the Thunder. You are the good guys. We think the refs have been UNFAIR to the Thunder in the past few games. Their coach tells them to play nasty and yet so few obvious fouls called on the Spurs, not counting Derek Fisher's 3 point shot as 3 points, he was not out of bounds and was called as that. I could go on. We will be watching again tonight, hope the refs are more fair. Go Thunder!! Beat the Spurs!! The New York Times has the Thunder winning in 6.

With all this talk of Durant playing the entire game; it brought me to a thought I've been having in a few of the playoff games. Has anyone noticed Durant appearing tired in a few of the playoff games this year? I noticed it in Spurs Gm 1 4th quarter. It seemed his legs were shot. Ive seen it a few times, he tries to go around a defender and he settles for a jumper or falls down....as if his legs are tired. Can't blame him, but could he really play the entire game?

What we need to do is give most of Fishers minutes to Thabo. Fisher defers PG duties to Harden late in games. Thabo can hit the open three and shut either Parker or Manu down on D. How many points have the Spurs been scoring in the 4th? How many minutes does Thabo play in the 4th? exactly... duh!

We know that KD needs to play most of the game, and that we need to go small for the rest of the series. No reason to leave rounds in the chamber. However, we all know how stubborn Brooks can be. He's extremely loyal to Perk, regardless of how much of a factor he may not be. He was acquired to play the Lakers, not the Spurs. We're facing a different animal. I feet that Brooks is too stubborn to make the adjustments; the adjustments that Pop makes in his sleep.

I don't understand where all of the Cook Love is coming from. The guy has a PER of 9.26 and a sieve on defense. Oh, did I mention he's a career 32% 3-pt shooter in the playoffs? I don't want to depend on that guy in the biggest game of the season. We have to play small, we have to depend on Fisher. I wish we had Ray Allen but we don't so let's just roll with this.

For everyone saying OKC needs to pick up a good shooting guard I honestly think they have one in Reggie Jackson. I remember watching him drive and dunk a few times this year and thinking he could be really good if he was a cutter on offense rather than a point guard. He seems uncomfortable initiating offense and dribbling down the floor. Our second unit next year could be Maynor-Harden-Jackson-Aldrich-Collison.

@PowerSerge why do you think Thabo can shut down Parker or Ginobili? Has he shut them down before? As a matter of fact as he ever shut anyone "down"?Your rant sounds more like die hard fan banter, rather than a true basketball knowledgeable fan.

@zloop44 I think Brooks knows this. I think his issue is rest for the big 4 and continuity. Start the normal starters, as they do fairly well against the Spurs starters, but once Manu and JH enter the game... switch gears to small ball.

@Marty_McFly321 That's what I said when we drafted him. And he reminds me a LOT of Harden as a rookie. In year 2, Harden came around, but wasn't getting the minutes to perform like this year. Year 3, got minutes and voila, a superhero is born.

The progression could very well go about the same for Reggie, as his issues (confidence at the cup, confidence handling the ball) were quite similar to beard's, and for what he lacks in size compared to the Bearded master, he makes up for in length and athleticism.

Just one thing stands in the way, and his name is Scott Brooks, the evil Thunder nemesis... Of course, that's not to say it wouldn't happen with his replacement. Many good coaches are known for being hesitant to play young players, and although I'd love a good coach willing to play our young guys, I could live with that flaw if they're good at everything else.

@JimboSlice@Marty_McFly321 I think we all get a little caught up in the automatic blaming of Brooks. He is not a great Xs and Os coach, but he has done a fantastic job of bringing along players who were thought to be reaches or overdrafts and and turning them into Stars. I think it is ridiculous to say that the success of Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, etc. is all on Presti. Believe it or not, but Brooks actually does have a good record at bringing along players...

(Not saying that Durant was thought to be an overdraft, but the rest were not thought to be star material)

@ThunderWins Exactly but Harden and Maynor are used to creating under ScottySystem and they can get Reggie involved easily with his great athleticism. Plus you've got great screen setting/rebounding with Collison and Aldrich.

@DustinMcWilliams@JimboSlice@areayewhy@BallSoHarden He should get a rest last 1 or 2 of the 3rd and first 1 or 2 of the 4th... would amount to 8-10 minutes of real time and he should be good to go. With RW and JH both on during that time and possibly Ivy on Parker for that stretch just to harass the hell of him.

@FF_pickups@SB718 Cook love or no Cook love, why are we depending on Fish and NOT Thabo. Playoff averages are all well and good, but the playoffs aren't THAT different that they negate the player's most recent regular season numbers completely.

Thabo's been terrific when healthy, and is by FAR a better shooter than Fish this year, by FAR a better defender than Fish (in a completely different universe better), better off the ball, Fish almost NEVER plays a point guard role for us anyway, so we don't lose anything there.

I don't necessarily constitute Cook over Fish, although I think it's almost a wash and I'll take Cook defensively and on the boards over Fish, I wish we'd see Ivey over Fish but we won't of course, but why aren't people pushing for more minutes for Thabo instead of Cook or Fish?